Valentine's Day
by d-kronk
Summary: GC... How can Gil forget Valentine's Day? How can he correct his mistake? ...GC


Title: Valentine's Day

Author: Angie

Disclaimers: CSI Crime Scene Investigation does not belong to me, they are the property of CBS, Alliance Atlantis, Jerry Bruckheimer and the wonderful actors who portray them. .

Author's Notes: I guess I need a deadline. Anyone who was in chat on Thursday will be shocked to see this, because I knew there was no way I would get this done in time for Valentine's Day. So imagine my surprise when I opened the document today and just started writing. To read this story as it was written and how it was meant to be read, please visit There you can find this story posted with the song lyrics in the form it should be, instead of the chopped up version I need to post here on many thanks to Marianne for her excellent beta job, and the help with the ending. It's much better now.

Rating: PG

Spoilers: None

Distribution: The GraveshiftCSI Homepage

XOXOXO

Gil looked up as the door to his office was slammed shut, right into the eyes of what could quite possibly be the most furious Catherine he had ever seen. "Cath?"

"Don't 'Cath' me, Grissom."

"What's wrong?"

"'What's wrong?' You know what's wrong, Grissom. Where have you been?"

"Here. Working on this case. You know that, Cath."

Catherine sighed loudly, blinking her eyes rapidly. 'Don't let him see you cry. Don't let him see you cry.' She repeated her mantra in her head a few times before replying. "You promised me you… never mind. Just forget it. If you need me you know where I'll be." Turning, she quickly left the room, slamming the door again as she exited.

Gil stood up and took three steps towards the door before stopping. He still wasn't sure why Catherine was upset. It wasn't as if he had never been caught up in a case before. He glanced down at his watch, nine o'clock, he still had an hour and a half before he could check on his experiment. He turned back to the paperwork on his desk. A step later and he was turning again, following Catherine's path out the door. Swiftly walking through the halls, he walked out of the building just in time to see Catherine leaving the parking lot with Nick. "Damn it!" He turned around, making sure no one had heard his uncharacteristic outburst. He strode purposefully back through the lab to his office, shutting the door behind him.

XOXOXO

Gil signed his name to the last of the paperwork in front of him just as his watch beeped. He moved the file with the others in the outbox and looked down at his rarely clean desktop. The calendar on the desk still read January, and he tore off the top page wadding it into a ball and softly lobbing it across the room into the trash can. He was about to stand up when something caught his eye. Looking back at the calendar, his heart sank when he noticed the elegantly drawn red heart with Catherine's delicate handwriting written in the square next to it.

"I promised her I wouldn't forget…" Gil grabbed the phone, hoping it wasn't too late. He dialed her cell phone, praying she would answer.

"This is Catherine, leave a message and I'll return your call as soon as I can."

"I'm sorry, Cath. I…you know how I am. I'm just… sorry. Please call me." Gil returned the phone to the hook, hoping that she wasn't avoiding him.

He stood up, pacing the room as he waited for Catherine to call back. Ten minutes later and he was walking back to his desk, grabbing his own cell phone before leaving the room. Walking to the break room, he felt relief when he saw Warrick in there alone.

"Warrick, I need a favor."

"Sure."

"Call Catherine for me."

"What? Why don't you just…?" Warrick stopped his question when he saw the look on Gil's face.

"Just see if she'll answer you. Don't let her know I'm the one that asked you to call, though."

Warrick picked up his phone, no longer questioning Gil, just doing as he was told. He dialed Catherine's number and waited.

"Hi Cath! It's Warrick… Well, I just wanted to call to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day. Did you have a…? Oh, sorry. I'll let you get back to work."

Gil winced as he heard Warrick mention Valentine's Day. "What did she say?"

"Nothing much. She's out on a case with Nick."

Gil sighed, and turned to leave the room. He paused in the doorway and turned slightly back to Warrick. "Thanks." He left the room and went back to his office.

XOXOXO

He shut the door behind him and slowly walked to his desk. He grabbed the phone book before sitting down and prayed that he could get out of his predicament. Flipping to the florist section in the yellow pages, he started at the top of the list.

The irritation started twenty phone calls later. Another thirty calls and he was ready to give up. The one place he had found that was open didn't have a dozen roses, and wouldn't deliver anything within the next hour.

He put down the phone and grabbed the car keys, hoping he could find something somewhere. He glanced at the clock before leaving the office. 'Eleven ten... I have fifty minutes to find a grand gesture.'

He once again stopped in the doorway to the break room, calling out to Warrick. "I need to leave the building for a while. I'll have my cell with me, but only for emergencies… I'm waiting for a call."

"Forget Valentine's Day?"

"What?"

Warrick smiled. "That's why you had me call Cath, right. You forgot and now she wont return your calls. There's a twenty-four hour flower shop on Sahara just past Rancho Drive. Go there and find something, it doesn't have to be roses at this point. It's to late to get a dinner delivered, unless you go with fast food. And if you even think of bringing Cath McDonalds for Valentine's Day… just don't think it, she will kill you. I'll go and find you a bottle of sparkling cider, no alcohol since you two are still at work. Card… that's something you should pick out, but only if you have time. Are you coming back here, or going to her house?"

Gil thought for a moment, still reeling with all of the instruction Warrick had just given him. "Back here I guess."

"Good. Get the flowers. I'll go grab some things and get everything set up on your office."

"Warrick, I…"

"Don't talk. You are wasting valuable time, we have forty-five minutes to get this set up. And we still need to get Cath back here by then. I'll call Nick on my way."

XOXOXO

Warrick hopped in his car and sped off towards the closest grocery store he could find. Picking up his phone, he dialed Nick's number.

"Nick? Warrick. Is Cath still with you? And don't let her know I mentioned her."

Nick turned, nodding towards Cath, and took a few steps away from the scene. "Yeah. What's up?"

"You need to get her back here by midnight. The closer to midnight the better." Warrick said as he turned into the parking lot and squealed to a stop.

"What? What's going on?"

"Valentine's Day."

"Aah…. And someone forgot."

"Exactly. He's out trying to find flowers now. I'm working on a few things myself. But we need a little time. If you can get her there about five till I think we'll be okay."

"But how am I… never mind I'll think of something."

XOXOXO

Nick looked down at his watch. It had been twenty minutes since Warrick called, and he had another twenty to get Catherine back at the lab and into Grissom's office. "Cath?"

She looked up at the sound of her name and turned towards Nick. "Hmm?"

"We need to leave." Not the most subtle thing to say, but he was hoping it would work.

"Why? What's wrong?" Catherine stood, walking over to where Nick was standing.

"Nothing's wrong. But we're basically done here. And if we hurry we can get back to the lab before midnight. I want to wish my, um.. girlfriend, a Happy Valentine's Day one more time, and I'd rather do it in person." Nick instantly regretted his choice of words as soon as he saw Catherine's face, but tried to keep any acknowledgement off his features.

"Sure." She choked out. Hoping he wouldn't realize anything was wrong. She quickly gathered her belongings, and minutes later the two were racing back to the lab.

Nick remained quiet during the trip, still trying to figure out how he was going to get Cath into Gris's office without raising any more suspicions. Pulling into the parking lot, he slowed down, looking to make sure the other cars were in the parking lot. Once he ensured that both men were back, he pulled into a spot and stopped the vehicle.

Catherine hopped out of the car and was slowly making her way into the building, the last place she really wanted to be tonight. She looked down at the feeling of the hand on her arm, walking faster as Nick started pulling her towards the building. "You can go on without me, Nick. I can get into the building on my own."

"I know you can. But it's late. And no one else is out here. I just don't want to leave you out here by yourself."

"Nick…"

"I know, I know. You don't need me around to protect you. You can take care of yourself. Just humor me, okay."

Catherine sighed, and let Nick have his way, not up to arguing with him tonight. She found herself practically jogging to keep up with his long strides, and stumbled as he pushed her through the front doors. Pulling his hand off her, she turned and glared. "What are you trying to do? Kill me? I would have been better off in the parking lot by myself."

"No time to argue Cath. Let's go." He reached for her hand, ignoring her protests, and continued pulling her down the hall. He stopped in front of the break room and blocked the doorway from her entrance. "If you don't mind, I'd like a little privacy. Why don't you wait in Grissom's office?" He said as he pushed her that direction and barricaded himself in the break room.

Warrick turned the corner just in time to see Nick push Catherine down the hall. "Cath! Man am I glad to see you. I need some help." He walked towards Catherine and kept her forward momentum going, putting his hand on her arm and pulling her along. "I've just spent the last hour getting yelled at by Gris, for something I didn't do. And before that he was taking his mood out on Hodges. You need to talk to him. When he threw me out of his office he slammed the door and shut the blinds." He stopped in front of the closed office and reached for the handle. "Thanks Cath." He said as he opened the door and guided Catherine into the office, shutting the door before she could react.

XOXOXO

Catherine stood, staring at the door Warrick had just shut in her face.

"Did you need something, Catherine? I'm a little busy here."

She could feel her blood start to boil as she heard Gil's voice come from behind. "What the hell is wrong with you? Just because we had a fight doesn't mean you need to spend the night yelling at everyone who works here." Catherine turned around to face Gil and her mouth dropped open in shock.

"Surprise?" Gil said quietly as he stood from behind his desk and made his way over to a still shocked Catherine. "Cath?" He waved his hand in front of her face, hoping to get some sort of reaction.

"What is all this?"

Gil looked around the room and sighed. "I know it isn't much, but it's the best I could do. I'm sorry. I really am. I got through my case files tonight and found the note on my desk. It's not an excuse… just an explanation. I do love you, you know that… but I'm not the best at expressing my feelings. I forget the grand sweeping gestures. Isn't it the little things that mean more?"

Catherine shook her head as she looked around the room and walked over to the blanket on the floor. "How did you get all of this done in three hours?" She asked as she sat down, looking at the make-shift picnic.

"Can I refrain from answering that?" Gil asked as he sat down across from her.

"That's why Nick was in a hurry to get back here… But he didn't… Warrick."

"I may have had a little help." He reached out for Catherine's hand as she started to stand. "Wait. Please." He breathed a sigh of relief as she sat back down. "I didn't ask for help. I hadn't thought far enough in advance to know I needed it. I tried getting flowers delivered, which I found out is impossible to do in an hour in Las Vegas… at least on Valentine's Day. I was going to run to this florist I found that was actually open. All I told Warrick was that I had to step out for a while and he guessed what happened. Before I knew what was happening, he had all these plans arranged and we were both leaving. I found the roses and Warrick took care of everything else." Gil stopped and looked around his office at everything that had been set up. "I have no idea how he managed to get everything and still have time to call Nick and get you here."

Catherine looked down at the food that was spread on the blanket, and the electric candle in the middle of the blanket. She smiled as she saw the wine chilling in a large beaker filled with ice. "Wine?"

"Sparkling cider." Gil corrected as he lifted the bottle, pouring a glass for them both. "Strawberry?" He lifted the lid from the chocolate covered strawberries, holding the container out so she could see the selection.

"Seems like Warrick thought of everything." Catherine picked a strawberry and was about to pick it up when Gil took it from her.

"Let me." Leaning in closer, he held the strawberry in front of her, enjoying the site as she bit into the fruit. He leaned closer, moving the fruit and brushing his lips over hers in a strawberry tinted kiss. "Forgive me?"

She nodded, moving closer to Gil and locking her lips on his in a passionate embrace. "I'm sorry about the way I acted earlier. I know you didn't mean anything…"

"Don't. You were right. I promised you I wouldn't forget and I did. Not only that, but then I left you sitting at home by yourself. You had every right to be angry." Gil pulled back and reached for the roses he had placed behind his desk.

Catherine reached for the vase and smiled as she inhaled the scent of the dark red buds. "They're gorgeous."

"You do know the significance of the red rose, don't you? The meaning behind it? It's the symbol of love and respect, passion and courage. All the things I feel about you. You're the true beauty in my life, the passion in my life."

The tears glided down Catherine's cheeks, and her smile grew larger. "You always say that you never know the right things to say… Have a little faith in yourself, Gil. You know what to say." She closed the slight distance between them, wrapping her arms around him. "I love you."

"Are you going to read the card?" He whispered in her ear.

She leaned back and looked for the card in the vase. Finding it, she opened the small envelope. 'I'll love you until every last rose dies.' Puzzled she looked closer at the roses, her eyes sparkling with unshed tears as she spotted the artificial flower in the vase. She looked over to Gil and saw the nervousness on his face. "I…I…" She paused, and tried to collect herself so she could speak. "I think that is the most romantic…"

"Dance with me?"

Catherine nodded in agreement, and Gil pressed the play button on the CD player before pulling his love into his arms. Their arms wrapped around one another as they swayed to the music, neither caring if their soft sighs and whispered conversations were heard by those passing the office.

XOXOXO

Warrick and Nick left the break room an hour later, both curious to know if the plan had worked. They were pretty sure it was successful, considering Catherine hadn't found them and killed them.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Nick asked as they walked towards Grissom's office.

"We're just going to walk by, no interruptions or anything. It's better then sitting in break room waiting for one of them to walk down the hall."

They slowed their pace as they got closer to his office, stopping in front of the door. Both smiled as they heard the soft sounds of music flow out the door, followed by Catherine's laugh. Their victorious smiles appearing as they went back to work.

"Imagine that, Warrick."

"What's that?"

Nick's typically engaging grin flashed. "You and me. The Acme Cupid Company."

"Yeah. Imagine that."

Finis


End file.
